Comparison by energy

To start off, I want to get an overview of all the albums compared to each other in their energy and loudness. This first histogram shows that there is a quite a big difference in energy between all the albums. Cheek To Cheek scores quite a bit lower than Chromatica for example, which is logical because the it is a jazz record consisting of more slower, chiller songs. Chromatica, on the contrary, has only upbeat songs and scores very high on the energy ranking. This rule seems to apply for all her pop albums. Artpop, The Fame, and Born This Way score much higher than Cheek To Cheek (jazz) and A Star Is Born. Joanne is seems to be a combination, because it has both lower and higher energy scores. The album consists of both upbeat and slower songs, as it is a mix of pop, folk/country and rock elements.

Comparison by loudness

This second histogram displays the loudness of each album. A Star Is Born and Born This Way are quite similar to each other. The albums are relatively loud and seem to do this consistently. A Star Is Born does have a high outlier, which could be explained by the harder rock songs on the album. Another notable element is that Cheek To Cheek and Chromatica are divided over the whole graph, meaning that they have songs that are less loud (softer) and songs that are a little louder. However, Chromatica has more loud songs than Cheek To Cheek. Joanne is much more centered in the middle. The Fame and Artpop both have a higher level of loudness. The albums are quite consistent regarding this element.

The Fame

This plot is relatively cohesive and does not show a lot of extreme outliers. The most notable one is Brown Eyes, which has an energy level of 0.508 and is significantly smaller than the other songs. On the other side, Disco Heaven has the highest energy level of 0.946.

Born This Way

This plot is already very different than the previous one as the line is pretty bent and curvy. The biggest outlier in energy is Bloody Mary. Its energy level is 0.637. The highest energy level is 0.970 from the song ScheiBe.

Artpop

This plot shows a bit of a curve. The biggest outlier is clearly Dope. Its energy level is 0.429. This is the lowest one until now, which makes sense as this song is a ballad and has is much slower and lower in valence and danceability than the other songs on this rather experimental album. On the other end, Mary Jane Holland has 0.967, which is the highest energy level of all songs on this album.

Cheek To Cheek

The Cheek To Cheek plot shows a pretty straight line starting from a lower danceability level to a higher one. This jazz album is very different from the rest as the genre is already a big notifier of how the valence and danceability level could possibly impact its energy levels. The lowest energy score is 0.129 for Ev’ry Time We Say Goodbye, which is much lower than what was previously noted. This song is very slow and low in energy. Contrary to that song is It Don’t Mean A Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing). Its energy level is 0.778, which is the highest here.

Joanne

This plot for the Joanne album shows a relatively straight line with a curve in the beginning. The biggest outlier in energy is the Angel Down - Work Tape. Its energy level is 0.237. This song is a different version of the song Angel Down which is on the same album. The energy is much lower as it is slower than most songs on the album. The highest energy level in this plot is 0.889 for the song A-YO.

A Star Is Born (Soundtrack)

The line of this plot for the A Star Is Born (Soundtrack) album is pretty bent. The biggest energy outlier is Is That Alright?, which has an energy level of 0.279. This is also a slower song. The highest song, on the contrary, is Black Eyes (by Bradley Cooper, in this case) which energy level is 0.937.

Chromatica

The last plot for Chromatica shows a curvy line. The biggest outlier is clearly Chromatica II, which has an energy level of 0.184. This is an instrumentaland orchestral track of 42 seconds and transitions seamlessly into 911, which has an energy level of 0.789. This is the song that has the highest energy level of the album. It is quite interesting how two tracks, that are usually seen as one, can be so different in their energy levels.

Disco Heaven (energy: 0.946)

This tempogram of Disco Heaven shows one very clear line around 225 BPM. There is also a more vague line around 510 BPM, but it is not a clear as the first one.

ScheiBe (energy: 0.970)

Theere is one clear line around 225 BPM and one that is clear but not as consistent around 550 BPM.

Mary Jane Holland (energy: 0.967)

This tempogram is not very clear. There is a line around 200 BPM, but it is interrupted quite often. The biggest interruption is around 150 seconds, which could be explained by the syncopation that is incorporated into the the rhythmic pattern of the beat. There are even some parts when the beat dissapears completely.

It Don’t Mean A Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing) (energy: 0.778)

This tempogram does not have one distinctive line. There is something around 210 BPM, but it is not very clear. It is understandable that the line is tempo to distinguish in this song, because this jazz track does not have a very clear beat pattern.

A-YO (energy: 0.889)

A-YO has the clearest tempogram with its distinguishable line around 300BPM.

Black Eyes (energy: 0.937)

Black Eyes shows a line around 300, but it is not very clear. It is for example interrupted around 75 seconds when a guitar solo appears in the song.

911 (energy: 0.789)

This 911 tempogram has two clear lines around 220 BPM and 440 BPM. This is logical as the latter is the double of the first one.

Altogether, it is clear that most of the highly energetic songs have clear lines, with one or two exceptions. Most of them have their tempo between 200 and 300 BPM, which is a up-beat tempo for a track. So, it makes sense that these were the songs with the highest energy on each album. My expectation of the songs that are higher in energy would also have a higher BPM is true.

Brown Eyes (energy: 0.508)

This chordogram shows Lady Gaga’s song Brown Eyes. There are a lot of changes in the song, but the most notable one is around 165 seconds. At this point in the song, Gaga turns up the volume of her voice for the bridge. The present chords are Cmin, Amin and Cmaj. Cmaj and Amin are relative keys and Cmaj and Cmin are parallel keys. They are all connected in this way, up til the end when there is a fadeout in the song around 235 seconds.

Bloody Mary (energy: 0.637)

Bloody Mary’s chordogram is very different than the previous one as the colors are much lighter. The clearest trend is F#min that keeps on going throughout the song, except for during the intro and outro. There are not a lot of notable changes besides this one.

Dope (energy: 0.429)

This chordogram of Dope shows a pretty clear structure. There is a 20-second intro, after which a verse starts. Around 45 seconds into the song, the pre-chorus starts, in which Bbmin is the most notable chord, that was also clearly present in the verse. This structure continues for the rest of the song.

Ev’ry Time We Say Goodbye (energy: 0.129)

Ev’ry Time We Say Goodbye also shows a clearly structures song. The most notable chords are Eb-maj, Fmin for a short part of the song, Emaj and C#min. These chords all lie close to each other.

Angel Down - Work Tape (energy: 0.237)

Angel Down - Work Tape does not show a very diverse chordogram. Dmin is quite present in the first 40 seconds and D#min stays very present throughout the whole song. For the rest, the chords are very light which means they are not very present.

Is That Alright? (energy: 0.279)

Is That Alright? shows a few present chords such as Ab-maj for a short part of the song and Amaj that is quite strong throughout the whole song. There are chords like Amin and Fmaj that show a smaller present, but are still there.

Chromatica II (energy: 0.184)

Chromatica II has three clear parts. The first part is the intro, the second part shows no strong presence of chords and the third part shows a strong presence of Fmin, Ebmaj, Dmin and C#min. This track is instrumental and orchestral so it is different from all of the other songs.

Disco Heaven (from The Fame)

I will now compare the first and last song with the highest energy to find any similarities and differences. This cepstrogram shows Lady Gaga’s song Disco Heaven from the album The Fame. I plotted it in sections, as I find this the clearest overview of the cepstrogram. It is divided very equally. c02 is clearly the strongest one here.

911 (from Chromatica)

This cepstrogram shows Lady Gaga’s song 911 from the album Chromatica. This one is different from the previous, because there is a lot more variety here. c02 and c01 are the most prominent, but there are definitely some more that are present. It started to get dark from c07 to all the way up.

Shallow (1.445.044.322 streams on 28-02-2020)

There are a few notable trends in this chromagram. The most consistent note is the G. Note that the other present notes are the ones that do not have an accidental (# or b). Only F#/Gb has a few moments in which appears, which is later in the song. This makes sense, because the song is in G-major, so the only note that has an accidental is F#.

On A Clear Day (You Can See Forever) (56.827 streams on 28-02-2020)

This chromagram has much more changes. This is logical as this song is a jazz song, compared to the previous song that was pop. Jazz usually has more musical changes and shows more diversity when it comes to its musical elements. The prominent notes all appear very shortly, except for the D#/Eb that stays longer at a later point in the song.